One of the major selling points on this knife is their spring assisted open. It is quite snappy. To prevent any accidental openings you can use their “Max-Lock” on the side of the blade. When engaged it will prevent the blade from either opening or closing. During vigorous usage I engaged the Max-Lock unintentionally, then spent a little time fighting with the blade to get it closed.

At $40.00 this is a great knife, especially if you consider that it is a one handed spring assisted opener. I’ve had this knife in my pocket for about a month now and have used it in a variety of cutting jobs. The last job I threw at it frankly was knife abuse, but it handled it as well as could be expected. I was helping a friend lay sod, and I used the knife to cut in the sod. It lasted through about 3 cuts with a good edge, and soldiered on through the rest of the job if I sawed quite a bit at it.

Once I had thoroughly dulled the blade I took it home, cleaned it up and gave it a good sharpen. Sharpening this knife gave me a little trouble because of the thumb studs. It wouldn’t fit properly in any of my power sharpeners, so I had to get out some sharpening rods. The knife sharpened up just fine and cuts like a champ.

If you have larger hands (I usually wear XL sized gloves) the knife feels a little small sometimes. For a pocket knife this is great, if you are intending to do longer more rigorous cutting jobs you might want to consider their Rapid Response 3.90 which is a little larger.

I recently had the chance to go back through my 72 hour kits. I changed out some clothing for my children, removed some things that didn’t make sense anymore and replaced the food. As I was doing this I found a few things that made me glad I had been looking over my kits.

The first item I found was in the food. I had placed pop-top mixed fruit cans, and in three of my kits the tops had been popped. The contents had gotten all over the rest of the food, and then of course had dried out. It was pretty gross. So if you are going to use those types of cans make sure you pack them in a way that they can’t get accidentally opened. (more…)

At 10:15 Drop, Cover, and Hold OnDrop to the ground, take Cover under a table or desk, and Hold On to it as if a major earthquake were happening (stay down for at least 60 seconds). Practice now so you will immediately protect yourself during earthquakes! (See this page for what to do if you are in bed, outside, driving, in a tall building, or other situations.) For people with disabilities or access and functional needs, download our preparedness guide (661 KB) PDF.”

While still under the table, or wherever you are, look around and imagine what would happen in a major earthquake. What would fall on you or others? What would be damaged? What would life be like after? What will you do before the actual earthquake happens to reduce losses and quickly recover?

For those of you local to the Salt Lake City area, there is a great store called NPS. They are located at:

1600 South Empire Road
Salt Lake City, UT 84104
801-972-4133

NPS calls themselves a “salvage and freight recovery company”. What that means is their inventory is always changing. They’re setup with a department store layout, for example: clothing, electronics, house wares, hardware and even groceries. Generally you don’t go to NPS looking for a particular item, but to see what deals they might have. Most of their product is reduced from retail prices. The prices range from being just under retail to steals of a deal, it just depends on how lucky you are. (more…)

This is yet another “Eat what you store / Store what you eat” post. I had a few experiences in the last week or so that has worked me up to this article.

Eat what you store

First. A few weeks ago I went to get some cooking oil from our storage area. I discovered to my dismay that well over half of my oil had gone rancid. I’m not sure if I had a tempurature fluxuation or what happened. Bottom line: I was almost out of oil. Fortunately it didn’t ruin my dinner plans, but imaging discovering that your oil was bad in the middle of a crisis? The oil was out of date, but my previous experience has lead me to believe that generally oil has more longevity than is stamped on the bottle. (more…)

Having a sharp knife is critical. I’m sort of a knife junkie, and am always looking for new and better ways to keep my tools sharp. I was at a gun show earlier this year and picked up the “Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener“.

What Is It (and what’s in the box):

This Work Sharp basically amounts to a hand held belt sander. For the Alton Brown fans among us, this device is definitely a Multi-Tasker. The package comes with several angle guides and some different grits of sanding belts. The coarsest grit is for sharpening tools like shovels, axes or lawn mower blades. The medium grit is for fixing up damaged or really dull blades. The fine grit is for putting on a razor sharp polish. (more…)

I must limit the size to 40 people so sign up early to reserve a spot. If you must cancel please let me know immediately so I can free up a slot for someone else. If you must cancel please do it as soon as you know you will not be coming to make room for someone else!!

Curing meat is an age old process. It has been used to preserve, intensify flavors, and make unpalatable cuts of meat acceptable for consumption. Most of us don’t worry about the preservation aspect so much anymore, but if you’ve ever made a marinade then you’ve dabbled in curing (perhaps with out even knowing it). In this post I’m going to go over some of the ingredients needed to cure meat and introduce a couple of salt mixtures that can be very useful in curing your meats. I’ll also go over some things that could be kept in your food storage.(more…)

According to a recent article on KSL.com many Utah cities and counties are considering or allowing residents have backyard chickens. Most likely you’ll need to verify with your city hall. Many places allow hens, but not roosters so make sure you check up on that.

If you have the space for chickens they provide a nice source of fresh eggs and meat (if you have a rooster). How many of you have chickens or are considering it? I really want to get some, but can’t in my current place. For those that have them what has been your experience?

I purchased the Berkey Light water filter a few months ago. When I made the purchase I also had the option of getting a free accessory. I decided that the portable sport bottle would go well in my 72-hour kit (Bug out Bag).